Do you market your business on the Net? Stop! Before you invest
more time or money, develop an ROI model based on these five steps
to achieve greater success:

1. Research market demand. How do people search for your
business online? Choose keywords that describe your products or
services. Then check the popularity of these keywords by using
Overture's Search Term Suggestion Tool
or WordTracker. You'll see what related offers you
could sell and which words to use in your marketing copy to relate
to your audience better.

2. Write marketing copy that sells. Bryan Eisenberg,
author of Persuasive Online Copywriting (Wizard Academy
Press) and principal of Future Now Inc., a New York City marketing
firm, reminds marketers to use "copy vs. images." Pay
attention to how you express value, what mood you set, if your
policies instill trust, and whether you're selling style or
substance. From your e-mail or banner ad campaigns to the landing
pages you send consumers to, address the needs of your target
markets.

3. Optimize your landing pages. What colors persuade site
visitors to buy? Does a free shipping incentive convert better?
Page layout,colors, graphics and words all affect conversion rates,
so find the combinations that yield the best results.

4. Use a conversion formula to evaluate profitability.
Many factors influence marketing performance. Fortunately, all you
need to forecast results is some basic data: a customer acquisition
cost goal, site conversion data and the program cost.

Say you're willing to spend $10 to land a new customer, your
site conversion rate is 2 percent, and you could buy 1,000 clicks
for $250. This campaign won't work; you'll actually end up
paying $12.50 per customer. (Two percent of 1,000 clicks is 20
customers. The program cost of $250, divided by 20 customers, is
$12.50 each.) This formula for a cost-per-click campaign is an
example of how to determine the profitability of a campaign before
investing in it.

5. Test before you invest. Execute a small campaign and
track the results. Dan Roitman, founder of Internet Order LLC, a
marketing firm in Pittsburgh, used Future Now's conversion
methodology to create his marketing model. He also used WebTrends), which
provides Web and traffic analysis, and Inceptor, which
provides a search engine and marketing and optimization services,
to test landing pages before launching a marketing campaign. Over
five weeks, Internet Order's conversion rate for its foreign
language course increased by more than 1,500 percent. Roitman, 25,
credits ROI model development and testing as chief contributors to
his marketing success.

Don't wait until your budget is exhausted to determine your
e-marketing ROI. You can create a performance model to assess
profitability before and during your campaigns.